The Christmas Present By James Michener It was the turn of the century and I was a mere boy of 10. During the summers, I cut the ...

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

"DON'T IT MAKE MY BROWN EYES BLUE?"

“Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue?”

The Superficial

Crystal Gale made that song popular a long time ago. But in today’s
world it seems fitting regarding what we see on tv for what we see is not real.

Consider two popular female actresses who have hit tv shows, Kyra Sedgwick and Holly Hunter. Do you think that their hair is real? Of course not---it’s either part wig or mostly extensions added on to the scalp. The makeup artists have used some really super holding glue apparently for in the action scenes, if the extra hair weren’t glued onto their scalps, if would fall off.

We see people with short hair and then the next day it’s long and wavy: is that realistic? It’s frightening that today’s children think that it is real.

Every person who is in the media’s attention no doubt wears colored contacts. Do you really think that seeing a person’s picture with glazing green eyes is real? I don’t think so! If you look closely, you will see people in the entertainment industry or on tv with several different eye colors in one week.

Yet, it seems that this specific point isn’t noticed at all: It’s overlooked.

And let’s not forget dazzling snow- white teeth that everyone on tv is sporting. It is not real but veneers put on by a dentist and it costs thousands and thousands of dollars. But again, to children and young teens, it is perceived as real. And what will happen when they grow up and don’t have them? That makes everyone who doesn’t go around sporting them, appear part of the “unbeautiful” people. And so these children and young teens reaching adulthood will simply have to have the veneers: It is the thing to have.

Photoshop, a computer program, is another handy fool the eye tool for it can alter a person’s picture and change that person from dull to glamour in a hit of a computer key. The result might look great but once again, ah it isn’t real. We see these altered pictures of famous people and think that they actually look like that and then are in utter shock when we see them in person or see a real picture of them.

Add plastic surgery and anyone can look like anyone else. It’s a scary thing to think that eventually all people will look the same and there will be no individuality at all: It will be a oneness. And that is what is happening so fast.

No one wants to look old or older. Everyone wants to stay looking the same as they do in their early forties and it’s possible with money and expertise.

Add a personal trainer to stay in shape and a dietician to prepare precise meals and body perfection sets in—that is for the wealthy or those who simply have to stay the same.

It reminds me of the movie “The Time Machine” where Rod Taylor meets a world of young blonde people who are all the same age. Where is the distinctiveness that sets one person apart from the other? Where is the sign of age? Not there as anyone who has seen that movie knows.

Had Mona Lisa been a real person she would have not survived in today’s world: She would have been picked apart, forced into plastic surgery and had her hair changed and absolutely, been told to wear a different color of contact lenses so that her dark eyes wouldn’t show. Yet to the world she was considered beautiful with her auspicious stare.

Movie stars of the thirties and forties aged right before people’s eyes in movies and this was accepted. Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Katherine Hepburn and hundreds of stars accepted their aging as did the public. Heaven forbid seeing

Walter Cronkite on television sporting jet black hair, no moustache and those glaring white teeth: It would have been more than jolting to the viewers.

Technology can be an amazingly awesome tool: It has changed us all in one

way or another whether we welcomed it or not.

Technology is gaining its fastness and either we choose to go with it or say “Stop!” Superficial is here to stay and for those of us who have chosen not to follow its path are looked down upon for as we age we will not be the “beautiful people” anymore. And that makes my brown eyes blue.

2 comments:

Good statement, Sherry. We definitely need to instill better values in our children and grandchildren and let them know that their inner beauty is what counts - not all the cosmetics, body-shaping, and surgery that is used by people who live by their "looks".

About Me

I was an elementary teacher for 35 years but before and during teaching, I worked for 7 summers as a typist for the Dept.of Transportation. Have always written and painted in what seems like forever. I have a BS degree in Education and English and a masters degree in communication. Was a volunteer for Goodwill for 14 years during which time I served on the board of directors for 8 years. Writing and painting have been a part of my life since I was four; it is not something that I see as being audacious but more of something that is inside of me that has to surface. And I believe that everyone has a creative gene be it connected to music,acting, photography, design,advertising or any avenue that calls for creativity. It is what makes us unique. The Charleston Gazette has been so gracious in publishing many of my stories;some have been in the Charleston Daily Mail as well. And a friend of mine let me use his lobby for my first art show a year and a half ago. Dreams do come true. I have been published in The Charleston Gazette, The Daily Mail and http://usads.ms11.net/sherry2.html. Of late, I've self-published 11 Amazon Kindle E books. Be sure to check them out and thank you.